Heavy steering

sunnysingh · 15 Sep 2011 at 13:21

I drove out my driveway and about a few hundred yard away the steering went extremely heavy and became impossible to turn into corners. On the dash the battery warning light has come up, but it starts without any problem. What should I be looking at as I have no basic knowledge of cars. By the way the car is a 51 plate vauxhall vectra 1.8 and the battery was changed about 2 years ago.

ubersonic · 15 Sep 2011 at 13:30

Accessory belt? If its snapped the will be no drive to the power steering or the alternator (battery light) or the water pump!

Matt82 · 15 Sep 2011 at 14:27

exactly what he said... no something to take lightly

Wicksta · 15 Sep 2011 at 14:30

ubersonic said:
Accessory belt? If its snapped the will be no drive to the power steering or the alternator (battery light) or the water pump!

The water pump on a 1.8 Vectra runs off the cam belt so he'd have a few more worries if that had gone.

ubersonic · 15 Sep 2011 at 15:05

Wicksta said:
The water pump on a 1.8 Vectra runs off the cam belt so he'd have a few more worries if that had gone.

Ahh cool

Philz0r · 15 Sep 2011 at 15:22

hows the temperature gauage?

if a pully has snapped that means you wouldnt be getting power stearing or coolant, and last thing you want is the gasket to go.

other thing is maybe your stearing rack has gone, mine did about a year ago, (02 vectra dti), picked one from the scrapyard for £20.

Fuzz · 16 Sep 2011 at 00:24

sigh..

As has already been explained, the auxiliary belt has nothing to do with driving a water pump.

Arcon, alternator and power steering. That is all.

mattyprice4004 · 16 Sep 2011 at 01:17

Scubascorpion said:
sigh..

As has already been explained, the auxiliary belt has nothing to do with driving a water pump.

Arcon, alternator and power steering. That is all.

Quoted for emphasis.

B@Th*nG · 16 Sep 2011 at 09:03

you can check the belt just by lifting the bonnet

B@

sunnysingh · 16 Sep 2011 at 21:45

Just a update the belt somehow came loose, but for some strange reason there was no break in it. After feeding in back between the pulleys the power steering is now fine. The tension isn't as tight so need a mechanic to look at it properly. I still dont understand how it fell apart without snapping ??

malfunkshun · 16 Sep 2011 at 21:48

Tensioner (alternator adjusts for this on these?) probably moved, the belt shouldnt have become that slack that quickly. But then, the tensioner/alternator shouldn't have moved either.

energy · 16 Sep 2011 at 22:43

You were able to feed it back between the pulleys by hand? It shouldn't be that loose. I'd get it looked at, the tensioner has likely failed (or the alternator mount if thats the method used for tensioning)

logi-cat · 16 Sep 2011 at 23:28

check the power steering reservoir?

Dogbreath · 16 Sep 2011 at 23:36

sunnysingh said:
Just a update the belt somehow came loose, but for some strange reason there was no break in it. After feeding in back between the pulleys the power steering is now fine. The tension isn't as tight so need a mechanic to look at it properly. I still dont understand how it fell apart without snapping ??

If by "fell apart" you simply mean the belt jumped off the pulleys, then you have already explained the cause; insufficient tension. This might be due simply to wear (belts stretch and the rubber physicaly wears a little) or the tensioner may have backed off due to not being tightened sufficiently or may be even broken.

Lopéz · 17 Sep 2011 at 08:28

Scubascorpion said:
the auxiliary belt has nothing to do with driving a water pump.

It's a major pain in the ass when they do.